Or should I say, "get's them to pound it into the ground". Brad Bergesen won his major league debut with the ground ball. 81% of balls put into play by the White Sox, a staggering number and impressive for a major league debut against a pretty good veteran lineup.
Obviously, Bergesen can't maintain that pace but he has had groundball rates in the mid-50's for the last two seasons and his starts this year in Norfolk. For comparison, Scott Erickson was getting groudballs at a 60% rate when he showed up in Baltimore in 1996, the major reason he was able to be productive and not have the greatest stuff at that point in his career.
So that's the key for Bergesen. Make them hit it on the ground.
He seemed to work away from the hitter's well last night. I wonder if the next team to take him on will crowd the plate to adjust for it.
Berg Reminds me of the old Oriole, Scott Erickson.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Erickson never had great stuff but made a living out of pitching to contact and inducing grounders. We'll see if Bergesen can duplicate this pattern.
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